[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                  MORE MONEY NEEDED FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

  (Mrs. McCARTHY of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
support for more money for our public schools. Our public schools 
desperately need increased funding as we prepare our students for the 
next generation for the 21st century. Schools must modernize 
facilities, provide better training and pay for teachers, reduce class 
size, and provide innovative learning experiences.
  That is why I support the New Democrat's Three R's bill. This bill 
will increase education funding by $35 billion over 5 years. Right now 
we only spend 7 percent of our Federal budget on education. That means 
that some our most neediest schools are not getting enough funding. We 
need to do more for these schools, and we can.
  Let us be honest here: We know that putting more money into the 
system is not going to solve all our problems. If our schools do the 
work and use this money to meet their goals, we will reward them with 
additional funding. But if they do not meet their goals after 3 years, 
there has to be accountability.
  But there is a major difference in the way we approach funding in our 
schools and the way President Bush approaches it. While the President 
sends funding to the States without any direction, our approach is that 
we should send our Federal dollars back to our school districts.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to give all of our schools the help 
they need by supporting the Three R's.

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